CNN host Jake Tapper slammed President Donald Trump on Monday for his comments about a slain journalist while hosting a foreign leader whom American intelligence agencies concluded ordered the journalist's killing.
Trump hosted Saudi Arabian Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud at the White House on Monday. During a press conference, a reporter asked MBS about the murder of former Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Khashoggi was assassinated and his body was dismembered in October 2018 in Turkey by a Saudi hit squad that American intelligence agencies say conducted the operation with MBS's approval.
Trump jumped in to answer the question about Khashoggi's killing, saying the journalist was a "controversial figure" and that "things happened" to him.
Tapper responded to Trump's claims during Monday's broadcast of "The Lead."
"Things happened?!" Tapper said. "Here's the thing that happened, Mr. President. In October 2018, while you were president, Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, was, according to U.S. intelligence, killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by men with close ties to the highest levels of the Saudi government."
Tapper also chided MBS's claim during the press conference that Saudi Arabia is "doing everything it can" to prevent a similar event from happening.
"Except something similar has happened," Tapper said. "Again, just five months ago, Saudi Arabia executed Turki al-Jasser, another journalist, this one known for exposing corruption. The Associated Press reports that this time Saudi Arabia publicly leveled charges of various terrorist crimes and accusations of destabilizing the security of society, though authorities did not detail or provide any evidence."
